Sorj Chalandon

Sorj Chalandon's best-known novels, Le quatrième mur and Retour à Killybeg, draw on his long experience as a foreign correspondent for Libération, but this one is obviously more related to his difficult childhood, although it's also set against the background of the Algerian war and the OAS campaign of terrorism.

Growing up in provincial France in the early sixties, narrator Emile always has difficulty when the school asks him to fill in a form with a box for "Father's occupation" — you show more can't very well put "secret agent" or "terrorist" without attracting adverse comment from classmates, and the other jobs his father likes to reminisce about are all some way in the past — parachutist, pop singer, pro footballer, Pentecostal minister, etc. Even his much-vaunted close relationship with General de Gaulle is no use, as they have since quarrelled over Algeria.

We realise of course, a long time before Emile does, that his father must be seriously mentally disturbed. The comic quality of his claims to be an OAS assassin and the French equivalent of the Fifth Beatle is soon lost when we learn about the violence he uses against his wife and child when he feels he has been thwarted or undermined in some way, and the way he frustrates all their attempts to get out of the closed world of their little apartment. Emile goes to school and his mother to her job in the offices of the bus company, and that's it. No stranger is allowed into the flat, and relations with all friends and relatives have been cut off.

The point of the novel seems to be to explore the way Emile and his mother tacitly conspire to treat their family life as though everything is completely normal, and to cover up for the father without ever openly admitting that there's something wrong. There are obviously strong psychological forces that make families close ranks against the outside world, even when they are clearly in intolerable situations where you would think that common sense would make them ask for help. I suppose we've all seen that sort of behaviour happening in small ways.

Disturbing, but oddly also quite charming in its evocation of the period. And sometimes darkly funny. show less

A beautiful book about the promise and the limits of the arts, in this case theater, to break down walls of conflict between different nations/peoples. So many interesting questions are posed, such as whether theater can transcend time and place, the political (in)significance of art, what is reality, what is the basis of our individual identities especially in the context of war and conflict, political activism and art.

Conseillé par Jeanne A. Un sujet important, déroutant, traité d'un très beau point de vue très attachant... quand une personne perd la tête et ne s'invente que des histoires, quand ça devient sa réalité, et celle de son entourage...

Excellent ouvrage relatant l'histoire vraie de denis donaldson, lieutenant de l'IRA qui à la suite d'un evenement s'est senti obligé de collaborer avec les services britanniques lors du conflit irlandais. L'auteur ne porte pas de jugement sur la vie du principal interessé, roman assez simple à lire et qui nous apprend beaucoup de choses sur le conflit en général et comment il a été perçu par les irlandais eux même.